‌IND-W vs NZ-W | ‘Devine’ intervention topples India as New Zealand equalizes tally with convincing win

Brief Scores: NZ-W: 259/9 [Devine: 79, Bates: 58; Radha: 4/69] beat IND-W: [Radha: 48, Thakor: 29; Devine: 3/27 ] by 76 runs.

It wasn’t surprising to see New Zealand opt to bat first in a sweltering Ahmedabad afternoon and make the hosts toil with the ball. Openers Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer got off to a stable start, bringing up 46 runs together in the first powerplay. As the pair switched gears,  Deepti Sharma dismissed Plimmer in the 16th over to fragmenting a formidable 87-run stand. Lauren Down fell shortly after in the 20th over before Devine and Bates pushed New Zealand to 114/2 by the 26th over. Right after, Radha Yadav slowed down the old ball’s pace and got the better of Bates, followed by Brooke Halliday’s wicket 29 balls later. Subsequently, Devine and Maddy Green kept the scoreboard moving, reaching 179/4 in 40 overs before the former registered her 16th ODI fifty in 64 balls. The pair switched gears with Green smashing three fours in the 45th over off Saima Thakur before Radha claimed her four-for by extracting wickets on consecutive deliveries. Eventually, the tail faltered but Devine’s 79 steered the White Ferns to 259/9 in their allotted 50 overs.

In response, Smriti Mandhana fell prey to Lea Tahuhu in the first over itself before Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia followed suit with the score reading 26/3 in five overs. Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues kept the scoreboard ticking for a while before the latter was outdone by a cross-seam delivery from Devine in the 14th over. Despite losing wickets, India’s run rate didn’t quite surge below 5.00 until the Drinks Break. But the hydration break paved the way for the Indian captain’s departure in the 17th over, followed by Tejal Hasabnis’ end of struggle in the 25th. With the tail being exposed, the Kiwis ran havoc by removing Deepti Sharma and Arundhati Reddy in the next couple of overs. However, Radha Yadav and Saima Thakor stood firm against the spinners and pacers by carefully negating them for quite some time. The ninth-wicket partnership grew stronger, irritating the Kiwis with every run on the board. Despite suffering a hamstring pull, Saima kept going before mistiming one to the bucket hands of Bates in the 44th over. With the seventy-run stand coming to a halt, India’s rekindling act dampened despite Radha’s go big or go home approach. She fell short of a fifty by mere couple of runs with the visitors earning a 76 run triumph over the Women in Blue.

 Wow!

Smashes

Overrated

India stands defeated

Comfortable

New Zealand is not good for India

It's happening

Well done

What a win

Interesting